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Mission Trails: 1942

It's 1942 and we're back in San Francisco for another look at one of the many fine establishments made even finer by the installation of Buckley Music System's "Music Box." The eatery is Andy Wong's "Fair Famous" Mission Trails Restaurant, Harvey Lum, manager, at 500 Sutter Street. Close your eyes and you can practically hear Padre tolling the mission bell while the brothers pound out their tortillas. 8x10 inch acetate negative, photographer unknown. View full size.

of coke from Mexico is good, but better yet is the French version. We were on a trip with my daughters school to France and Spain and brought back cans of French and Spanish Coke. We lined up 4 versions to try in a blind test. We had American, French, Mexican, and Spanish versions and the consensus was that French was the best, followed by Spanish, Mexican and American was dead last. The French version uses better extracts for the flavoring and is outstanding! I don't know if the American version uses natural extracts or not, but I can't drink it anymore.

In the 1920's my mother waitressed at a place that served "mix it in front of you" Coke. The Coca-Cola company used to send around undercover employees to check that the proprietor wasn't skimping on the syrup in the customers' drinks.

The curtained staircase in the back looks mysteriously inviting. I wonder if there was additional seating upstairs. Would any San Francisco-based Shorpyites be willing to pay a visit to Lori's Diner, which is now in this location, and give us a new photo of the interior for comparison?

I was thrilled to see Mexican Coke at a car dealership promotion recently and took a couple of bottles home. My family did a blind side-by-side taste test against American Coke (with HFCS) out of a plastic bottle. Two of us guessed correctly, and 2 were wrong. Moreover, I personally slightly preferred the American version, even though both were plenty good. Oh well.

The container flanked by the two malt machines contains the malt ingredient necessary for a good “malted milk,” and the probability is very high it’s the Horlicks brand. Back in the dark ages we could buy a good malt for 35 cents, with real ice cream to boot. More often than not the server would bring the metal mixing container filled with the drink to the customer along with an empty glass to drink it from. There was always enough for two full glasses. Darn, those things were good! Can you even find a place these days selling malts?

Are the strange devices you're talking about the juicers?
Don't know whether they served fresh squeezed orange juice, but they may have made lemonade and limeade from fresh fruit.
I used a similar device working the fountain in a drug store.

Was sippin' on a bottled Coke when I pulled this photo up, and the sight of that Coca-Cola soda-jerking-type tap flashed a memory of how very different this particular soft drink tasted back in the '50s, when soda fountains abounded and a Coke was mixed right there in front of me, and served in an actual glass glass with a straw and little ice cylinders, each with a little hole through the center. I sighed, and instantly thought of two things: one, that Cokes don't taste like they did in the old days; and two, that every day, my reminiscences are sounding more and more like those of my late Dad.

I can live with both.

[Try "Mexican Coke," bottled in actual glass bottles and made from the original syrup recipe, with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. - Dave]

Thanks much, Dave. Your reply marks the first I've heard/read of the Mexican, uh, version of the soft drink.

At least as far West as the Sunset District near Golden Gate Park. Polk's 1951 SFO directory shows that one Harvey Lum was now a proprietor at new digs located 1239 9th Ave. One can only hope he ported over the great idea of those chair back hat clips. And maybe the idea of the Happy Trails carried over as well. It's now a very highly rated taqueria.

If Shorpy feels the need to destroy images by background overlays of their name, I might as well not come back. I'd hate to see images destroyed.

[All of our photos have that. The watermark isn't "destroying" anything. Without it, we would not have purchased, scanned and published the image, and you never would have seen it in the first place. - Dave]

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